The Digestive System ( Simple terms)

Digestion is the breakdown of food into small particles so that they can be absorbed into the blood.

Digestion starts in the mouth.
This involves both mechanical digestion, ( the chewing of food) and chemical digestion begins in the mouth.
Teeth chew food into
smaller pieces, while saliva is mixed with the food to
Begin the break down into simple sugars.

Next the food passes through the esophagus and enters
the stomach,
In the stomach the food is mixed with acd and is turned into a thick liquid
called chyme.

The chyme then passes into the first section of the
small intestine,
Here bile which is created at the liver and stored in the gallbladder  and
Enzymes created at the pancreas are added to the food.
Bile helps break down fats by reducing large drops of fats to small
droplets, which increases the surface area of the
fats.
Enzymes produced at the pancreas help digest the liquid chyme.

The walls of the small intestine are lined with folds and tiny finger-like
projections called villi, which greatly increase the surface area of the
small intestine.

Nutrients diffuse through the thin walls of the villus
and into either the capillaries or lymphatic vessels.

The small intestine is very long, measuring about (23 feet) in length.
After the small intestine, food passes into the large intestine, or colon.

Excess water is also absorbed in the large intestine and the mixture is compacted and readied for elimination. Wastes are eliminated through an opening called the anus.

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